WWE, Lana And Rusev Get Heat From Media And Fans For Apparent Reference To MH17 Tragedy

Lana making an apparent reference to the Malaysian flight getting shot down over East Ukraine last week during her promo at WWE Battleground last night is getting picked up by several major international media outlets, including The Washington Post, News.com.au and The Daily Mail, and is causing heat from fans on social media. Lana said:

"You blame Russia for the recent current events."

Below are some tweets from fans:

"When the Malaysia plane tragedy is used for a [email protected] you've gone too far #WWEBattleground"

"Oh did the WWE just do a Malaysia Airline Tragedy reference? Someone needs to be fired for that"

The first time the WWE used a giant photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin to elicit boos for its heels Lana and Rusev, a pair of Eastern Europeans who hate the United States, it was largely looked at as a success. A cheap one, sure, but this is pro wrestling we're talking about and there was almost a certain throwback charm about setting up a classic USA vs. Russia feud.

But on Sunday night's Battleground pay-per-view, the shtick became less amusing and more cringeworthy when CJ Perry, the bilingual American who plays Lana, the acerbic Russian manager of Rusev (who both in real life and in the ring hails from Bulgaria), decided to allude to "recent current events" while ranting on the microphone about how Russia is better than the United States.

Cameron S and Giuseppe contributed to this article. Got a news tip or correction? Send it to us by clicking here.